dxAce wrote:
Not long from now, it will be Monday morning, August 6 in Hiroshima, Japan.

Let's pause, and remember the time when men were men, and the sheep knew their
place. A time when we actually gave our enemies the thumping they so thoroughly
deserved, without endlessly whining about it.

Yes, it will soon be the 62nd Anniversary of the Atomic bombing of Hiroshima.

And, I'm certain it will be mentioned on shortwave, so keep your radio on.

dxAce
Michigan
USA




Steve, normally I would be amused by this. Lord knows I long for a
time when men were men, sheep were nervous, and Oprah wasn't mother to
US ALL. But that morning in Hiroshima, we entered an age from which we
cannot retreat. The end of innocence. The end of simplicity. The end of
nations minding their own damned business.

Truth is, if it hadn't been us, it would have been someone else.
Delaying our entry into that war, it would have been Germany. Or the
Soviets. Or, God help us, Japan. So, it was an era into which we as a
species were going to enter, no matter who threw down the gauntlet.

And that day were planted the seeds of much of the dissent that
threatens civility in our own land. And fertilized them with the loam
created by easier living.

Lack of natural enemies leads to cannibalism within a culture.

There is no doubt that Hiroshima, and the second kiss, Nagasaki,
ended a war that would have continued on for years. With millions dead,
and, eventually, WWII fought on our own soil. Japan, believing that
death was more desireable than defeat, would have fought until there
was no one left. On either side. And two of the most astonishingly
adaptive and productive cultures would would lie in ruins. And the boom
that was to follow that war, the boom in technology, in culture, in
manufacturing, in agriculture, in economy, that fed, clothed, rebuilt,
restocked, renourished, and labor-saved life in the world would not have
come. Life was hard before the war. Not so much, after. To the degree
that children then had to worry about invasion, bombing raids, enough
food to eat, and separation of family. Children today have to worry
about fading batteries in their iPods and why mom won't pay for texting
overruns on their cell phones. And which government agency to call to
swat her down when she doesn't.

In a lot of ways Hiroshima was the entry fee to the New Age.

It was a terrible price. It was a no-win decision for Truman,
who--give the man his props--had the balls to make the agonizing call
between the horrors of those milliseconds of atomic release, and the
horrors of the war that would have continued. True to the vision of the
founding fathers, the biggest decisions were made by a common man.

Whose inate humility should have remained an inspiration to us all.

Yes, not long from now, it will be Monday morning, August 6 in
Hiroshima, Japan. Let's pause, and remember the time when men were men,
life was hard, and values were easily grasped, and we shared them across
the land. And let's bow our heads, and take a moment for prayer, or
silence... but let's observe a moment of humility and homage to the
souls that were lost to pave the way to the New Age.


David Peter Maus